


Time and Space

by RoboticSpaceCase



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Adult Dipper Pines, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, First Kiss, M/M, Statue Bill Cipher
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-02
Updated: 2019-08-02
Packaged: 2020-07-29 05:33:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,107
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20076961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoboticSpaceCase/pseuds/RoboticSpaceCase
Summary: Dipper Pines grows up believing that Bill Cipher had been destroyed until one summer he finds the statue of the demon in the woods.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This fic was a commission gift for teenashah93 from Ravenclue! :)
> 
> Hope you enjoy! :3

Somewhere deep in the woods of Gravity Falls, Dipper Pines sauntered along with his journal and pen in hand. The trees offered the kind of shade that one might spend an entire day relaxing in, not a care in the world. Dipper, while on a mission of sorts, didn’t hurry himself and took his time to get where he wanted to go to enjoy that shade.

Over the years, he had spent most of his summers there, coming back over and over again to fill bits of his journals that he could. Pages of uncovered truths and unravelled mysteries lay in his hands, a new doodle of the ground before him being drawn in beside them.

Dipper had come down that path many times before. At least, as many times as he could make the trip once he had found where it led. After the fateful summer before his thirteenth birthday, Dipper had come back to Gravity Falls about four times with nothing  _ too _ new happening.

He and Mabel had found some new little forest critters, Ford—visiting from his and Stan’s boat—had accidentally created a machine that turned them all into cats, and one of Wendy’s brothers had been bitten by a werewolf. All of which were fun, if not a little tiring, adventures. But none of them had compared to what Dipper found three summers ago.

At the young, sturdy age of twenty, Dipper had been whiplashed back to being his whimpy twelve-year-old self when he stumbled upon a statue in the woods. A statue of none other than Bill Cipher.

The demon stood frozen in time, his chipped hand extended out as if he were about to make one of his cunning deals. Weeds grew up and around his triangle body, the lower half completely covered by the Earth and grass beneath him.

At first, Dipper had no idea how to react. Scared, sure, but fascinated and confused were right up there too. Was it just some weird statue the other had tricked someone into making? Could it be the demon’s own handy work? Or maybe, just maybe, it  _ was _ Bill. The demon could have been trapped there, stuck to sit forever in the forest he had once burnt to the ground.

Dipper had laughed and drawn the thing in his journal, leaving it at that and going on about his day. Of course it had been just some statue. Thinking that Bill himself was still there was silly. He walked home, laughing to himself about how ridiculous it all was.

But, even someone like Dipper who had seen Bill’s wrath first-hand, had some morbid curiosity that wouldn’t let him rest.

The summer that Dipper had dared to shake the hand of the statue was one he’d never forget. As soon as he gripped the out-stretched hand the forest around him fell like sand into a void under his feet.

He had screamed, kicked and shouted like it would help anything as he fell too, but it, of course, did nothing. All it did was cause someone to  _ laugh _ at him, quite hysterically like it had been the funniest thing they had ever seen in their life.

And, to Bill, someone who likely  _ hated _ Dipper, it probably was. To see him acting so scared and foolish was nothing but eye candy for the demon.

Once Dipper realized that he wasn’t really falling, that he was just kind of floating in the void, he settled and searched for the sound of the laughter.

“Bill? I know that’s you, show yourself!” His eyes darted around but found nothing but his own reflection, something that had popped up out of thin air.

Dipper waved his hand and messed with his face, the reflecting doing the same. He stuck out his tongue and figured that the reflection would do the same. And it did, for a second.

The tongue extended much further than his could and his jaw opened up like some sort of Lovecraftian horror, the teeth extending until razor-sharp. If the pupils hadn’t turned a bright, glowing yellow, Dipper would’ve thought that Bill was just making him see things, but really the demon had just been mocking him.

“Yeesh, kid, talk about dramatic!” Bill sang, still keeping his form as the more disturbing version of Dipper. “You come to  _ my _ headspace screaming and crying like that and expect me to just give you the ol’ warm-welcome?”

“I wasn’t exactly asking for a warm-”

“Whatever, doesn’t matter now, does it? What  _ does _ matter? I certainly don’t know and I don’t think you do either.” The demon blinked at him, one eye at a time as if he had to remind himself that he had two eyes to close.

As unsettled by the situation as Dipper was, he kept himself cool and knew that in order to get out he’d need to just breathe and think. “No, I don’t really know, I guess. Though, to me, getting out of here kind of matters right now.”

Bill laughed again, water spilling out of the mock-Dipper’s eyes. “Gonna cry about getting stuck in here with me, Pine Tree? Oh hey, I rhymed! Anyway, there’s a simple way out for  _ you, _ but if you think I’ma just tell you for free, you’ve got another thing coming to ya!”

Dipper crossed his arms, folding his legs too so that he didn’t have his limbs just dangling uselessly there. Bill copied the action. “Well, other than your freedom—because not only do I  _ refuse _ to give you that, I also don’t know  _ how _ —what could you possibly want from me? And who’s to say I can’t just figure it out on my own anyway?”

“I’m to say because I’m smarter than you and even  _ I _ had to think about how you could get out!” the demon snapped. Bill paused for a moment, the unholy smile on his face growing wider. “You got in by accident, didn’t you? Oh, this is gold! Little Pine Tree, too curious for his own good! Curiosity killed the cat, you know. And you have been one of those before, haven’t you? Ol’ Fordsy got up to tinkering with things he shouldn’t be again.”

“Wh- How did you know that?” Dipper blanched. “H-have you been watching us?”

“Of  _ course _ I have! I may be stuck here but I still have eyes everywhere! You idiotic meatbags thought you scratched out and destroyed all of them but I still have a few aces up my sleeve!” To prove his point, Bill pulled back the skin on mock-Dipper’s arm, revealing eyes under it. “Anyway, if you can’t offer me my freedom, then I won’t offer yours. So it’s best you get comfy, Pine Tree! We’re going to be  _ good _ friends in here.”

There hadn’t been a lot Dipper could say to that, not when there really wasn’t anything  _ to _ say. Bill wasn’t about to budge on this and neither was he, so instead of trying to focus anymore on that, Dipper decided he would just try to brainstorm a few things.

Eventually, he’d find a way out and when he did he would have to tell Ford all about this. Maybe come dig up the statue and put it somewhere where Bill couldn’t bug anyone else ever again. But, until he figured out how he was going to get out, Dipper would just have to deal with Bill.

“I can see those cogs in your head turning, and I know what you’re thinking. ‘Bill, why haven’t you just BRUTALLY MURDERED me yet?’ Well, if you  _ must _ know, it’s because I’m a little mentally stale in here and I like the challenge!”

The demon blinked again in the unsettling way he had before and Dipper cringed at it. If there was one thing he’d have to do, it would be to at  _ least _ get Bill to change his form. Watching his own face and body move and look like it did gave him the worst chills.

“I’m not going to let you out, so if that’s really what you’re after then tough shit. Like I said, I not only refuse but don’t even know-how. So I’ll just be focusing on my own problems, thanks.” Dipper turned away from Bill, only for the demon to just reappear right before him.

“Aw, don’t be like that, Pine Tree! The years of being in this horrendously human world have made you too tough! Where’s the empathy, huh?”

Something in Bill’s voice made Dipper raise his brow, the slight crack in it having him feel a little less hopeless about his situation. Bill had been stuck there for a while and was probably getting pretty bored and lonely. As tough as the demon acted, Dipper knew he was still an intelligent being with needs and wants.

He could work with that. Dipper could find the cracks in Bill’s armor and wear them down. And with next to no ideas about how he was going to get out of there, it seemed like it was just about his only shot anyway.


	2. Chapter 2

They had been sitting in the empty space for a while, DIpper finding it easier and easier to ignore Bill the more he focused on his own problem. Bill had said he had to think about how Dipper could get out, but he had still said that there was a way out. And there was a pretty good chance that he’d have to get out to help Bill anyway.

“So,” Dipper said loudly, interrupting the loud singing Bill had been doing, “you’re expecting me to get you out of here but haven’t told me how to get out myself, which I would kinda need to do if I’m to get you out of here. Right?”

Bill hummed loudly, his Dipper-look-a-like form melting away as he did. Beneath it was his normal triangle form, a relief after having to stare at himself all deformed for so long. “Well, _ duh, _” he drawled. “Finally starting to like the idea of getting out of here? Even if it means freeing me?”

“No. I just want _ me _ to get out. But…if I have to work something out with you to do that, then fine. I can do that.” Dipper wondered briefly how long he had been in there for, but dismissed the thought. He needed to just focus on getting out of there, nothing else. Bill was too sharp-witted for him to not have his full attention on the deal.

And it took a while, talking things out. Dipper eventually agreed that if Bill got him out that when he returned to the physical world, he would get Bill out with him. To make sure Dipper didn’t back out on the deal, Bill put a bracelet on his wrist that kept him bound to Gravity Falls and told him that if he couldn’t leave, then neither could Dipper.

It hadn’t been fun to fully work out and when he told his family what happened they were, of course, upset at first. But Dipper had thought things through. Never once did they discuss a time frame and if Dipper had to live out the rest of his life in one of his favorite places to keep Bill locked up, then so be it.

His freelance work made the move easy and Mabel and the others thankfully helped. Though, some part of Dipper felt strangely bad about leaving Bill like that. The demon had sounded so sad and actually lonely. And when he had let Dipper out, waking him up by telling him to simply break the link between their physical bodies—Dipper just had to imagine his hand letting go of Bill’s, silly but everything with Bill seemed to be—the demon looked after his fading form with a slew of mixed emotions, most of them sad.

So, Dipper made it his mission to visit Bill once a month. He knew how to get out of there and flat out told Bill what he was doing and, while the demon seemed upset, there wasn’t much he could do about it. For the first couple of months, Dipper had to put up with a lot of screaming and anger, though.

By the eight-month, they started to have actual, casual conversations and Dipper was going nearly once a week. Dipper hated to admit it at first, but Bill was actually a pretty smart and funny guy when he wasn’t being a total dick and trying to destroy things.

Eventually, the full-year mark came and Dipper was on his way to see the demon again. He tucked the journal and pen away when he got to the statue, having already drawn it a million times before.

After setting his things down, Dipper gripped the hand of the statue. In seconds he was with the demon, not shocked to see him waiting impatiently.

“Bored already? I thought I gave you plenty of riddles to work on last week.” He laid back, quite fond of how easy it was to relax in the void.

Bill floated over him, arms crossed. “A frog, towel, time, isn’t possible, and aliens with time travel machines that turn them inside out whenever they use them. All easy-peasy, Pine Tree.”

Dipper snorted. “Uh, I don’t think that last one-”

“It is, trust me,” Bill interrupted. “Anyway, I’ve been thinking.” The demon tapped under his hat as if Dipper needed the physical motion to understand what he meant.

“Uh oh,” Dipper sighed with an eye roll.

“Don’t ‘uh oh’ me, Pine Tree, you’re the one coming up with horrible riddles. Anyhow, I’ve been thinking about how you’ve been coming to see me, even though you want to keep me trapped here. Why is that?”

The question caught Dipper a little off guard, his cheeks burning a bit red. “Ah, well, I...I felt bad? I know that’s probably not the answer you want to hear, but it’s true. You seemed really alone here and as much as I hated you before, I couldn’t just leave you completely. Besides, you’re...not the worst to talk to. You’re smarter than most people and if I have a work problem you usually help talk me through it. I like to think we’ve kind of become friends.”

“Friends, huh?”

“Friends that still maybe don’t fully trust each other,” Dipper added quickly. As close as they had become, Dipper couldn’t find it in himself to trust Bill. After all, Bill had lied and become friends with Ford before using him, who was to say that he wasn’t trying to do the same thing with Dipper? It was just best to be careful.

Bill snapped his fingers, a table and chairs coming up between them with the walls of a room coming up on the sides. “If we’re going to be all buddy-buddy, then, let’s play a game. Your choice.”

Perhaps hearing that had made Bill feel a bit better about Dipper being there. Normally the demon wasn’t open to sharing _ any _ of his mindscape, not even small objects that he could make appear, but Bill had made up a whole room for them to play a game in.

“Alright, how about some good, old-fashioned Go Fish?” He raised a brow, seeing if the demon was up for such a simple game.

“Fine. Go Fish it is.” A deck of cards appeared, shuffling itself over the table in the fanciest way they possibly could. “If you didn’t play this constantly with Mabel and Stan, I’d be surprised at the simple choice. Of course, with them you always place bets. Feel like gambling today too?”

Dipper narrowed his eyes, not sure he liked where Bill was going. “Depends,” he drawled. “What kind of gambling?”

Bill disappeared briefly into a puff of smoke, reappearing as a more human version of himself. Long limbs, sharp features, and some curly blond hair were all it took to make Dipper’s chest suddenly feel tight like he hadn’t seen an attractive person before in his life.

“And w-what the Hell is with that form?” he forced out.

“Can’t very well sit at a table like a person if I don’t waddle and quack like a person, now can I?” The demon had a suit on and had to adjust it a little as he sat down. “As for the gambling, well, if I win I’d like some sort of prize. Doesn’t have to be anything big, but being in here is boring. I want something to keep me thinking for a while.”

A loud sigh of relief came from Dipper, glad that the demon hadn’t asked for anything too crazy or big. “Alright, fine. I’ll give you a gift if you win. And if I win, I want you to tell me one secret of the universe. Nothing too crazy, but something I wouldn’t know.”

Bill shrugged. “Sounds like a deal to me!”

The two of them sat down and played a couple games of Go Fish, ending up doing a best two out of three because Dipper won first and Bill pouted his way into it. After the three games were over, it was decided that Bill had won and Dipper was fine with that.

He might’ve thrown the game to get Bill the gift. The demon had been so sad, how could he not?

“I knew I’d win, it’s all in the luck of the cards,” the blond bragged.

“Uh-huh. Well, are you ready for your gift?” Dipper stood up, clearing his throat and trying not to get too red in the cheeks.

Bill stood up as well, raising a brow at him. “I am,” he said slowly, “but I didn’t think you’d have it already. What is it?”

“Close your eyes and you’ll see when I give it to you.”

The demon did as he was told, closing his eyes and waiting with his hand out.

But Dipper moved past his hand and leaned in close to the demon, pressing their lips together in a chaste kiss.

When he moved back, Bill blinked at him, clearly confused.

“You said you wanted something that would make you think for a while. Go ahead and use that to think while I go and get some dinner. I’ll be back in a few days.”

With that he left, Bill stuttering after him. It was nice to be able to leave the demon at a loss for words for once, seeing as that had seemed so hard to do before. Maybe when he came back they could talk more about if there would be more kisses in the future. Dipper certainly wouldn’t be against it.

**Author's Note:**

> If you'd like to commission me/find out how to support my writing, check out my Tumblr! ^^
> 
> Comments and kudos appreciated! <3


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